A Raptor With No Name
by godfreyraphael
Summary: A velociraptor goes on a journey across the American Southwest after the events of Fallen Kingdom. Chapter 1 of 2 completed.


The early morning sun was already drying out the puddles of mud and rainwater when the _Velociraptor_ known as Blue woke up from her nightly slumber. It had not been an easy sleep. Images of the previous night kept showing up over and over again during her sleep and whenever she closed her eyes. That black abomination with the evil eyes and the yellow stripe appeared in the vast majority of those images, and this was what troubled her the most. Abomination was the correct word for that creature; it was not natural, simple as that. It should not have existed at all. And it was a good thing that she had managed to kill it, albeit with the help of those strange two-legged creatures, her alpha and his mate. Make that the creature who used to be her alpha; he had disappeared after the white monster that had pretended to be a raptor had been vanquished by the old _Tyrannosaurus_ and the _Mosasaurus_ from the island's lagoon.

Now that was another fateful night that Blue did not want to remember. She had lost her sisters that fateful night, and all because of the white monster. Charlie, Delta, Echo; they had all been killed because the white monster had fooled them all into thinking that it was one of them, that it was seeking a pack to lead. Charlie had been killed by the two-legged creatures and their abominable weapons, capable of killing at distances even a raptor would consider inconceivable. Delta had been thrown into a pit of fire by the white monster after Blue and her sisters had turned against it thanks to the return of their original, real alpha. And Echo had been similarly tossed aside by the white monster before the _Tyrannosaurus_ finally appeared to give the white monster a better match… No, Blue didn't want to remember that night ever again. If only her mind would stop playing the images over and over again every time she closed her eyes…

Truth be told though, Blue had already mostly forgotten about that dreadful night in the three years that she had spent in the wilderness of Isla Nublar, free to roam wherever she wished and free to hunt whatever she wanted. She had forgotten everything. Well, she had thought she had forgotten everything until one day, when the ground beneath her feet was shaking from all the tremors caused by the venting volcano, she met her old alpha once again. She had smelled his scent since he had penetrated the jungle where Blue had staked out her own territory and hunting ground, and she had tailed him for as long as she could before her alpha began calling out to her in his own strange noises and vocalizations. Blue had jumped out of the foliage and postured, demanded to know where he had been all these years. Of course, neither of them understood each other when they were both roaring, barking, and vocalizing. Her alpha had then tried to offer her food, but Blue didn't go for it. She was not going to go back to his side just like _that_. She wouldn't be bribed; no, she wouldn't. But the comfort of her familiarity with her old routine with the alpha began trickling back into Blue's mind, and slowly edged closer and closer to her alpha's waiting hand...

There was none of that familiarity now as Blue stood up from her sleeping spot and shook off the stiffness brought upon by her curled up sleeping position. Her throat felt dry; she looked around what had been her sleeping place for water and found a small puddle just big enough for her to dunk her snout inside and lap up a few mouthfuls. The water was muddy, but it was cool and it quenched her thirst.

Blue jerked her head up as she heard the chirping of birds above her. It wasn't that she hadn't heard such noises and sounds before; her old home on the island had been filled to the brim with noisy birds which sounded, at least to Blue, that they knew nothing other than chirping and screeching and tweeting to each other. The birds were also usually too high and too fast for Blue to shut them up permanently, but sometimes she got lucky and nipped one of the noisy bastards in the wing, and she and her sisters would pounce upon the wounded bird and tear it apart as a warning to the others to not get too close to her pack. The memory of her sisters and pack mates elicited a low growl from the depths of Blue's throat, but it was a growl of mourning and not one of threat.

The forest canopy provided Blue some shade from the morning sun but she immediately moved towards the gap in the leaves where the sun could shine down on her skin. Sometimes she just felt like letting the sun warm her up. She clambered over the rocks which she had used as her resting spot as she had curled up for the previous night and then she followed the gully down the mountain and towards a large stream with a fast-flowing current. Blue dipped her head into the stream and gulped in some of that cool mountain water and soon she was satiated. Now it was her stomach's turn to growl, and she sniffed the air for potential prey to be had. But there was no prey for miles around her, and Blue snarled before she made the decision to follow the stream. Prey usually could be found on the banks of streams and rivers drinking their fill as well. Blue hoped that she could chance upon some prey soon as her stomach was grumbling as loudly as an irate _Tyrannosaurus_. She couldn't remember the last time that she had fed. She'd certainly not had anything to eat since when she had encountered her former alpha again at her old island home.

Except there was also no prey to be found as Blue followed the stream, which eventually turned into a river. The mountains and forest also gave way to plains of grass and orange dusty soil that clung to Blue's skin whenever the wind blew. And then the flies appeared. At first it was just one fly, buzzing its merry way around the velociraptor's head seemingly without a care in the world. Blue followed the fly around as it flew around her head, and the raptor even tried to snap and bite at the insect even though she knew that she was never going to catch, and that even if she did, it would do nothing at all to soothe the rumbling of her stomach.

Eventually the fly lost interest in playing its little game with the dinosaur, and it flew off. Blue initially intended to ignore the fly and continue her search for prey but then a scent tickled her nostrils, the scent of blood and rotting flesh. Blue trotted off towards the direction of the scent, unknowingly following the fly. The scents led her to a carcass of an animal that she didn't know or recognize, but from the smell of the rot she concluded that the animal had been dead for at least a day. Flies buzzed on and around the carcass, but as the velociraptor drew near, the mass of flies flew away as Blue disturbed their own feeding session. Blue sniffed at the carcass, and then she took a small nibble of flesh. The flesh tasted a bit foul as it traveled down her esophagus, but in her hungry state she was in no place to complain about the quality of her food. She picked up the rest of the carcass, annoying the flies hovering around it and waiting for this massive intruder to move away from their feast, and moved to a place less infested with vermin. There Blue continued to tear at the carcass, securing it to the ground with her sickle claw and twisting off chunks with her jaws. The carcass didn't fully satiate her hunger, but Blue knew that it would have to do for now.

Thus Blue kept moving from place to place. She knew that she had to keep moving because the places which she had passed by did not offer her enough food and water for her to justify claiming them as her territory. And the sun in these parts was hot and dry; Blue thought that she could feel the scales on her skin buckling and cracking apart, although the fact that she didn't feel any actual pain from the supposed splitting of her skin told her that it was all in her mind. And it wasn't just her skin that was feeling dry; no, her throat was also getting parched. Water was also getting harder and harder to find in this place; the velociraptor was starting to think that perhaps it was a mistake leaving the relative safety and comfort of the forest outside of the strange structures where she had fought the black abomination.

After the passage of the second night, Blue found herself in what appeared to be a crack in the ground. The ground she was walking on felt somewhat softer than the other parts that she had passed through in the past few days. As she kept walking, the ground got softer and softer until it turned into actual mud. This then piqued the interest of the velociraptor, because she knew that mud was usually a sign of water nearby. Blue searched the little gully, finding nothing that remotely looked like a water source. Blue snarled in her frustration, and her sickle claws dug into the soft muddy soil. To her surprise, the underside of the soil beneath her feet felt cool and wet, and she retracted her claws upon making this discovery. Suddenly, Blue knew what she had to do in order to quench her parched throat.

The velociraptor bent as close as she could to the ground and began to dig at the muddy soil. It was hard work and took a lot of time to do; her arms and claws were not meant for excavating, and the nature of the soil itself didn't lend her a lot of favors as well. Sometimes the soil would become muddy and thick, and she would have difficulty moving the earth away from where she was digging, and at other times the soil would turn grainy like gravel or sand, and it would drop down into the very hole that Blue was trying to carve out of the ground. But eventually Blue's efforts finally paid off, and as night fell around her she managed to hit the water table underneath the dried riverbed. The ground gurgled as the water bubbled up to the surface, and then Blue waited with anticipation as the hole began to fill. The moon reflected off of the surface of the well that she had dug, and Blue immediately dipped her snout into the pool and began scooping up as much water as she could. She drank as much as her stomach would allow her to drink for she knew that finding water in these parts was a difficult task indeed.

Once she had drunk her fill, Blue curled up beside the watering hole that she had dug up for herself and slept. She woke up just as the sun was peeking out from beyond the horizon. Blue scooped up as much water as she could drink from the watering hole which was still bubbling up water from underneath, but the velociraptor knew that she couldn't stay here forever, so she leaped out of the dried riverbed and continued heading in the direction of the rising sun. Blue didn't know why she was doing it; she just knew that that was what she was going to do. On and on she went until the sun began to set, and even after the sun had gone and been replaced by the moon in the sky, Blue kept moving. In fact, Blue kept moving until she came across a strip of land that was both harder and hotter than the land surrounding it, comparatively speaking. The sun had absolutely baked the ground throughout the day, but this black stretch of land which Blue had stumbled upon was decidedly hotter than the sandy soil on which she had walked for the entirety of her journey.

Blue stretched out a toe and touched the black land with it. The heat emanating from the black land was enough for the velociraptor to pull her foot back. The heat was hot, although not unbearably so. Blue thought about it for a moment: if she ran across the black strip fast enough then maybe that would be enough to not scald the skin on her feet. On the other hand, did she really have to get across the black strip tonight? It wasn't like she was in any great rush or anything; in fact, she was just wandering this landscape, going wherever her feet would take her. And there was no shortage of areas this side of the black strip where she could lay down and curl up for the night...

Suddenly, Blue could feel something bright coming in from her left, accompanied by the loud roar of... something. She had no idea what kind of animal could produce such a high-pitched bellow as well as light itself up like the sun, and she tried to squint into the light to look for clues as to what this creature might be. Failing to see anything that she recognized, Blue snarled and barked at the approaching creature, or thing, or whatever. And soon the bellowing was accompanied by a deeper growling, something like an animal's threat display and yet at the same time something else entirely. Blue kept staring straight into the light even though her eyes were already beginning to water from the prolonged exposure.

Whatever it was that was barreling down on Blue then stopped, but still close enough that the velociraptor could feel the heat radiating from it. It was a different kind of heat from what was currently underneath the dinosaur's feet. The heat from the black strip traveled from the point of contact up the body and all around it, while the heat from the thing in front of Blue was just basking the skin on her snout and neck. She couldn't decide which was more unpleasant.

The thing in front of her honked, and Blue then heard curious barkings not unlike that she had once heard from her former alpha. Then the heat finally got too intense, and she walked across the black strip with a snort and a snarl and onto the welcome chill of the desert sands. She ran as far away from the black strip as she could and then curled up into a ball and slept once her exhaustion had gotten the better of her.

Thus Blue's journey continued for days upon days. She barely even kept track of the passage of time anyway, for she didn't care much about it. But what she did care about was continuing on this journey that she had taken up for herself. She didn't even know why she was journeying; she only knew that that was what she wanted to do. Why did she even have to trek along this dry and dusty land? There was barely any food or water that could be had here, and what little of both she could find was almost always only enough to stave off starvation and thirst for until the next time she could find the next vole and puddle.

Blue's journey on the very edge of starvation and thirst continued for a few more days, until she stumbled upon a four-legged animal covered in brown fur that was almost the same color as the sands that she had journeyed across. She had never seen such an animal before, but from the way that it limped slowly on the desert floor Blue could tell that it was either crippled or old. Or maybe even both. But more than that, Blue could tell that she would never find easier prey in the desert.

As if sensing her thoughts, the animal, a coyote turned its head towards Blue. The velociraptor froze, not expecting that move from her prey. The animal's ears flared up and outward, and Blue now began to contemplate her next move. There was very much a chance that this animal, crippled and old though it may be, would still be able to give Blue a fight. But that was only because Blue hadn't attacked, hadn't pressed her advantage when her prey was still blissfully unaware of the predator that now had it in her sights. But now the animal stared at Blue right in her eyes, and she stared right back. Neither animal dared blink for fear that it would give the other the chance to attack, in the case of Blue, or run away in the case of the coyote.

And then Blue pounced. She leaped high into the air, as high as her powerful and muscular hind legs and tail would let her jump, and she extended her sickle claws and snarled, anticipating the feeling of fur and flesh tearing apart under her feet. But instead all she felt was sand and dry soil, for the coyote had darted away at the last second once it had seen Blue leap, and the velociraptor was forced to scramble around and reacquire her prey. The coyote had sprinted for the cover of a nearby shrub, but in its old and weakened state it had not made it very far to the potential sanctuary of the thorny brush.

Blue cried out and snarled once again as she lunged for the coyote for a second time. And for the second time the old mammal managed to escape the pursuing dinosaur, but both creatures knew that it was only a matter of time before the large scaly lizard would eventually win the fight. But the coyote had every intention for living on as long as it could before the lizard's jaws wrapped around his throat and squeezed the life out of him.

When Blue finally landed her sickle claws on the flanks of the coyote, her hunger was beginning to affect her thinking, and instead of strangling the coyote by putting its neck in her jaws, the raptor simply gripped the neck and pulled. There was a crack and a pop, and the old coyote moved no more. Blue had barely had time to savor the kill before she used a sickle claw to tear open the coyote's furry skin and expose the guts inside. She tore into the coyote's intestines, shaking out the leftover feces inside as much as she could before she swallowed the coils. She then went for the liver, nibbling bits and pieces off through the rib cage. Blue snapped off a few of those ribs with her jaws and teeth so that she could consume her feast quickly and more easily.

Something stepped on the ground behind her, and Blue quickly turned around from the carcass to face the threat, bloodied snout and all. A snarl and a growl rumbled from deep in her throat and she bared her teeth. Blue also raised her tail to present a larger, more intimidating figure to whatever it was coming up behind her.

"Whoa, easy there, girl," Owen Grady said as he slowly walked up towards the velociraptor. He stopped a couple of meters away from the dinosaur, right hand held up with palm facing forward and his left hand holding the "cricket" close to his chest. Then in a louder voice, he said, "Hey there, girl. You come here often?"

Blue merely stared at her former alpha and cocked her head sideways. Not that Owen had expected any response from her, at least nothing of the verbal kind. If Blue had indeed begun speaking to him then Owen would have to question whether he was actually dreaming all of this. But no, Blue remained silent, and Owen stood his ground before her. This was most certainly not going to be like when he had gone in search for her on Nublar. For one thing Owen could see that Blue had very much just fed; so food wouldn't be the first thing on her mind right now. Probably he could offer some water, but maybe she had just drunk from somewhere else.

And this time the threat to Blue wasn't from a volcanic eruption; no, this time it was the law which was after Blue and her fellow escapees from the Lockwood Manor. And Owen was hoping that he could get to Blue before any of the state troopers or animal control units did. And it looked as if luck was on his side at this moment.

"Yeah, I know, Blue," Owen said as he slowly and cautiously approached the velociraptor. "I know I told you that you could go, but something's come up. There's people coming after you, and they don't know you as well as I do. They'll only see you as a dinosaur, and you might get hurt again."

Blue snorted, and Owen stopped moving. At least she hadn't jumped on him yet. Her nostrils flared, and she let out a low purr. Owen chanced a few more steps closer. "It's okay," he said. "I know you've been surviving out here on your own, and you're doing a good job of it, but if the people I'm talking about find you, well, that's not really good news for you. Come on. Let me take you somewhere safe." Slowly, shakily, Owen reached out with his right hand for Blue's snout. The velociraptor didn't back away or snap at him. Owen let himself a small smile, an internal one. Maybe things _were_ going to work out in the end after all.

* * *

A/N: So this is yet another work of mine which was inspired by a song. This time it's _Horse With No Name_ by America (which you've probably guessed at seeing as the title is a reference to said song). Two things to note about this work: firstly, yes, it's going to be part of my own little Jurassic World fanfic series, _Godfrey Raphael's Jurassic World_. And second, this is going to be a two-parter. The first part is this, Blue's perspective of her journey after escaping from Lockwood Manor. The second part is going to be told from Owen's perspective, and while I already have an idea of how it's going to happen, getting that second part up might be precluded by my working on my other ongoing projects. But anyway, I've put this part up for you all to enjoy. If you've made it this far then I would appreciate it if you could leave a review or a comment telling me what you think of it. It really means the world to me that there are people out there who see and read my works and want to let their thoughts about it be known. It only takes up a few minutes of your time and I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much. — GR


End file.
